Image forming apparatus

Abstract

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of excellent detection of the position of a toner mark on a transfer member without being influenced by transfer member thickness variation or position oscillation, and capable of high precision detection by eliminating errors due to differences in measurement timing by directly detecting the overlay dislocation of a plurality of toner layer with the same timing. The image forming apparatus of the present invention attains these goals by detecting the distance from the sensor to the transfer member 6, and the distance from the sensor to the toner mark P, and determining the position of the toner mark P via the difference in the distances. In this way the positional dislocation of the toner mark P can be detected with excellent precision.

What is claimed is:  
     
       1. An image forming apparatus comprising: 
       an image-bearing member;  
       a transfer member for supporting a toner image transferred from the image-bearing member; and  
       a detecting unit for detecting a toner mark on the transfer member, wherein the detecting unit detects the distance from the detecting unit to the transfer member and the distance from the detecting unit to the toner mark; and  
       a determination unit for determining the toner mark position via the difference in the two detected distances.  
     
     
       2. The image forming apparatus claimed in claim  1 , wherein the detecting unit has at least two position sensing devices aligned in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the transfer member, with one position sensing device detecting the toner mark, and the other position sensing device detecting the transfer member, such that the thickness of the toner mark is detected from the difference in the detection results. 
     
     
       3. The image forming apparatus claimed n claim  2 , wherein the determination unit compares the difference between the detection values of the two detection sensors to a first standard level and a second standard level for at least two overlaid color toner marks, respectively, determines area of different comparison results as toner mark color dislocation, and determines the amount of dislocation and the amount of correction from the continuous time of the area of different comparison results. 
     
     
       4. The image forming apparatus claimed in claim  2 , wherein the detecting unit detects the thickness of the toner mark from the difference between the voltage values output from the two position sensing devices. 
     
     
       5. The image forming apparatus claimed in claim  4 , wherein the detecting unit is a single sensor comprising a single photoemitter device and two photoreceptor devices. 
     
     
       6. The image forming apparatus claimed in claim  4 , wherein the detecting unit is two sensors comprising a single photoemitter device and a single photoreceptor device.